Talk talk talk

December 17, 2007

By ZZAKI

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okl, claims he overheard Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Barbara Boxer, D-Calf, chatting about how out of control talk radio had become.

"They said we've got to do something about this," Inhofe told a talk radio host. (LINK) "That 'these are nothing but far right wing extremists, we've got to have a balance, there's got to be a legislative fix to this.'"

I'm still waiting for comment from Clinton's and Boxer's offices….but this comes on the heels of a new study by a liberal group (LINK) that claims that in Spring 2007 "of the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners, 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming was conservative."

Even Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., has complained about talk radio as of late, saying last week "Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem" and “I'm sure senators on both sides of the aisle are being pounded by these talk-radio people who don't even know what's in the bill."

(Lott was complaining about the immigration reform bill being scuttled.)

“The people that he’s actually complaining and whining about now are the ones that tried to defend him when everybody else was throwing him overboard when he made those joking comments at a tribute to Strom Thurmond,” groused the omnipotent Rush Limbaugh (LINK)

What do you think?

--jpt

UPDATE: Boxer's and Clinton's offices got back to me.

"Senator Boxer told me that either her friend Senator Inhofe needs new glasses or he needs to have his hearing checked, because that conversation never happened," says Natalie Ravitz, the communications director for Boxer.

AFTERNOON UPDATE: Even though Inhofe prefaced this story by saying "I was going over to vote the other day," the Oklahoman this afternoon told Fox News' Neil Cavuto that this alleged conversation took place "about three years ago."